The Pied Piper 

z/v Pudding Lane 

SARAH ADDINGTON 




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THE PIED PIPER 
IN PUDDING LANE 














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What a chase that was! 


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THE 

PIED PIPER 
IN PUDDING LANE 

Being the truth about the Pied Piper , as Santa , oldest 
son of Mr. and Mrs. Claus , discovered it 
before ever he left Pudding Lane 

By SARAH ADDINGTON 



Illustrated by 
GERTRUDE A. KAY 


THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS 

BOSTON 








Copyright, 1923, by 
Sarah Addington 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


SEP 12 23 


©C1A711S54 




I 

I 


I 



PREFACE 


You remember, of course, how once, 
when Santa was a little boy, the people 
of Pudding Lane were frightened half 
out of their senses by the Pied Piper, 
that fellow who had piped away the 
children of Hamelin. And you remem¬ 
ber, too, how Santa saved the Pudding- 
Lane children from him just as they 
were about to follow him away, while 
their mothers were all at Mrs. Claus’s 
party. 

But that was n’t the end of the af¬ 
fair by any means. Santa had another 
adventure with the dancing man in 


PREFACE 


brown the very next day or so — an 
adventure that resulted in an impor¬ 
tant discovery. Much has been said 
and written about the Pied Piper, but 
Santa found out the truth — and here 
it is. 


vi 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 


I. Trouble Ahead for the Pied Piper . i 
II. Where Santa Was .... 8 

III. Company at the Clauses’ . . 14 

IV. Unwelcome Guests in Pudding Lane . 20 

V. Bad News.27 

VI. A Walk With Mother Goose . . 33 

VII. Something Very Exciting Happens . 38 

VIII. A Conversation With the Pied Piper . 42 

IX. Mother Goose’s Answer . . .47 

X. The Pied Piper’s Cave . . .51 

XI. The Wonderful Castles . . *56 

XII. The Pied Piper’s Farm. . . .64 

XIII. The Fountain.68 

XIV. Home Again . . . .75 

XV. Helping to Feed the Orphans . . 83 

XVI. A Hullabaloo down Pudding Lane . 87 

XVII. A Turn in Events . . . .94 


Vll 













THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

What a chase that was l . Frontispiece 


“Happy New Tear , Mrs . Claus,” he greeted her . . 22 

“ Tou see, it rains cats and dogs here,” said the Pied Piper 

calmly . 54 

Santa jumped to his feet and made a low how . . . 80 




THE PIED PIPER 
IN PUDDING LANE 

I 

TROUBLE AHEAD FOR THE PIED PIPER 

There was no doubt about it, the 
Pied Piper was in for a serious time 
of it in Pudding Lane. 

For when old King Cole heard of 
his attempt to pipe away all the chil¬ 
dren of the kingdom, he flew into a 
fearful rage, the like of which had 
never been seen in all the years of 
the old fellow’s reign. 

He called for his pipe to have a 
smoke and think it over, but he only 
bit off the end of it in his fury. He 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

called for his bowl, but the eggnog 
seemed only to make him more angry, 
instead of cheering him. Finally he 
called for his fiddlers three, but even 
their jolly music failed to rouse him 
from his black mood, and he continued 
to frown and scowl and mumble and 
growl until the poor Queen of Hearts 
on the throne beside him trembled in 
her boots, and was almost afraid to 
look at him. 

And he was usually such a merry 
old soul! It was really very terrifying, 
and everybody on Pudding Lane was 
extremely upset and worried about the 
whole affair. 

Mrs. Solomon Grundy went over to 
see Mrs. Claus, the mother of Santa, 


2 


TROUBLE AHEAD 

with the latest news. Somehow Mrs. 
Grundy always knew what was going 
on in Pudding Lane, and often she 
knew what was going on even before 
it happened! Which was quite remark¬ 
able, you ’ll have to admit. 

“ They say King Cole is going to 
send out a search-party for the Pied 
Piper and have him hanged,” said 
Mrs. Grundy. 

« Have him hanged!” exclaimed Mrs. 
Claus. “ What a notion! ” 

“ It’s very dangerous to have the 
fellow lurking about,” explained Mrs. 
Grundy. « For even if Santa did save 
the children of Pudding Lane from him 
yesterday, the Piper’s just as apt to try 
the trick again, you know.” 

3 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

“ Of course,” agreed Mrs. Claus, and 
feeling very kindly toward Mrs. Grundy 
for mentioning Santa in that flattering 
way, she rose to fetch her some tarts 
from the cupboard. People were apt 
to treat Mrs. Grundy well, anyway, for 
her tongue was a sharp one and she 
did say the unkindest things about 
people she did n’t like. She said, for 
example, that the only reason in the 
world Mrs. Spratt would eat no lean 
meat was because she was so stingy 
she did n’t want to leave anything on 
the platter. And Mrs. Grundy had 
even been known to criticize the Queen 
of Hearts, who, she maintained, was a 
silly creature, not at all the woman 
for King Cole. So you see, Mrs. Claus 
4 


TROUBLE AHEAD 

did well to feed her tarts and keep 
her in a good humor. 

While Mrs. Grundy was feasting on 
Mr. Claus’s best gooseberry tarts, in 
came the baker himself. But instead 
of his usual stiff white apron, the man 
wore a long, flapping coat in the belt 
of which was a murderous big sharp 
knife. And instead of his usual serene 
expression he wore a strange, fierce, 
desperate look. He did n’t look like 
a baker at all any more, but like a 
terrible pirate. 

« My goodness 1 ” gasped Mrs. Claus, 
her eyes popping at the sight of her 
husband. «Whatever in the world is 
the matter with you, baker ? ” 

«I’ve been called by the King,” and 
5 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

he had even changed his voice for a 
new and savage roar. “ I’m going out 
with the butcher and the candlestick- 
maker and the rest of the neighbors, 
and we ’re going to find the Pied Piper 
and hang him to a tree l ” He flour¬ 
ished his knife in the air. 

“Very well,” replied Mrs. Claus. 
“ But need you shake your knife at 
Mrs. Grundy in that bloodthirsty man¬ 
ner ? ” She was plainly much annoyed. 

Mr. Claus, looking a bit sheepish, 
bowed to Mrs. Grundy. 

“ That’s better,” said Mrs. Claus with 
approval. « I must say, baker, that ban¬ 
dits’ manners don’t become you as they 
might.” 

But the baker had gone, swinging 
6 


TROUBLE AHEAD 


his knife, switching his coat-tails. He 
really was blustering a great deal for a 
peaceful baker. 

“ It’s queer what a greatcoat and a 
sword can do to a man,” said Mrs. 
Claus to Mrs. Grundy. 

“ Better than no man at all, though, 
neighbor.” Mrs. Grundy put her hand¬ 
kerchief to her eyes at the reminder of 
her Solomon. 

“ There, there, Mrs. Grundy,” con¬ 
soled Mrs. Claus, “ I’m not so sure. 
But come, let us go into the shop. 
The baker’s left everything open in his 
haste and I don’t see Santa around 
anywhere.” 


7 


II 

WHERE SANTA WAS 

Mrs. Claus did n’t see Santa around 
anywhere because he was n’t there to 
be seen. He was playing with the 
children of the Old Woman Who Lived 
in a Shoe, where he had more fun than 
almost any place else in the world. 
If you had ever played in a shoe 
you’d see for yourself just how very 
much fun it was. 

The Old Woman had started house¬ 
keeping in a dancing-slipper, you know; 
but later, when she had so many chil¬ 
dren she did n’t know what to do, it 
8 


WHERE SANTA WAS 


became necessary to find a bigger place. 
So she moved them all, bag and bag¬ 
gage, into a rusty old laced shoe at 
the edge of the kingdom, where she 
hoped all would be well. “It’s just 
as bad to move from one shoe to 
another,” said the Old Woman, “as it 
is to move when it’s a house.” And 
as for housecleaning in a shoe — my 
goodness, the Old Woman just groaned 
whenever you mentioned it! 

But the laced shoe was hardly any 
better than the little old crowded danc¬ 
ing-slipper, for the children just would 
use the shoe strings for a jumping-rope 
and even for a swing, until the strings 
were quite worn out. And there they 
were, the shoe unlaced, and the rain 


9 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

and the wind and the dew coming 
in on them all night! No, it would 
never do. So the poor Old Woman 
went shoe-hunting once more. 

This time she had found a fine but¬ 
toned shoe right down at the corner 
of Pudding Lane and Pinafore Pike, 
whose heel, it is true, was run over 
quite a bit, but which otherwise was 
just the thing. And here it was that 
Santa was playing this very day with 
Judy and Tony and Jocko and Jumbo 
and all the other little unnamed chil¬ 
dren of the Old Woman. (She had so 
many children there were not names 
enough to go around, you know, so 
she just called the younger ones any¬ 
thing that came into her head, and 


io 


WHERE SANTA WAS 


somehow they never seemed to get 
mixed up at all.) 

Santa was certainly having a most 
hilarious time in the shoe on this 
afternoon. After the children had 
played tag through the buttonholes a 
while, they all played leapfrog over 
the buttons, and such a shouting and 
laughing and spilling around as there 
was! If you want to have the most 
fun in the world, just try a game of 
leapfrog over the buttons of a shoe. 

But before long the Old Woman 
appeared around the bend of Pinafore 
Pike, and Santa knew he’d have to 
go home so she could button up the 
shoe tightly for the night. 

«Oh dear,” sighed the Old Woman. 


ii 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

«Such excitement in the town about 
this Piper! I declare, I’m all tuckered 
out. I don’t feel a bit like giving 
you your nightly spanking, children.” 

«Then why don’t you leave out 
the spankings?” inquired Santa. He 
never had understood why the Old 
Woman gave the children their spank¬ 
ings in such a businesslike manner. 

“ Leave out the spankings ? ” repeated 
the Old Woman. “ Why, I could n’t 
do that. Sometimes we don’t have 
enough broth to go around, but there 
are always plenty of spankings. Won’t 
you stay and have one, too, Santa ? ” 
offered the Old Woman politely. 

“ Oh no, thank you,” replied Santa 
fearfully, and turning his back, he 


12 


WHERE SANTA WAS 

started home, running. But all the 
way home he heard the children of 
the Old Woman crying as they got 
their spankings, and if there had n’t 
been a surprise waiting for him at home, 
he would have cried himself, I am sure. 


13 


Ill 

COMPANY AT THE CLAUSES’ 

The surprise was Mother Goose, who 
was in the garden with Mrs. Claus and 
Santa’s little brothers, the two batches 
of twins. 

“ Why, Mother Goose, I did n’t know 
you were coming! ” exclaimed Santa, 
hugging his grandmother until he almost 
choked her. 

“Well,” said the old lady, “I did n’t 
know it myself. But I was up visiting 
the Man in the Moon and I thought 
I’d just drop in for the night.” 

“ The Man in the Moon ? Mother 
Goose, did you really visit the Man in 
i+ 


COMPANY AT THE CLAUSES’ 

the Moon ? ” Santa’s round face was 
filled with wonder. 

“ Oh yes,” answered his grandmother. 
“ The old fellow often invites me up 
there for week-ends. It’s a nice sum¬ 
mer place. So cool.” Then she turned 
to Mrs. Claus, who was looking ex¬ 
tremely wise. “ Nellie,” she said, “ don’t 
put any nonsense into the child’s head. 
I’ve told you many times how mat¬ 
ters stand there.” 

But Mrs. Claus kept on making eyes, 
though Santa did n’t even see her, so 
overcome was he at the thought of 
visiting the Man in the Moon. He 
wished, all to himself, that his grand¬ 
mother would take him the next time 
she went. But he knew she would n’t, 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

for Mother Goose never took anybody 
on her wonderful journeys. There was 
only room for one on the gander. 

“ Is the Man in the Moon a nice 
man ? ” he asked Mother Goose. 

“ Oh yes, nice enough,” answered his 
grandmother. “ Rather set in his ways, 
like all bachelors, but very amiable if 
he isn’t crossed. He’s rather disturbed 
at present, Nellie” (she was now speak¬ 
ing to Mrs. Claus again), «because 
some of the professors in London are 
saying that the moon is made of green 
cheese. And of course, it is n’t at all.” 

“ Is n’t it ? ” asked Santa. “ What is 
it made of, Mother Goose ? ” 

“ Well, nobody knows that, but the 
Man knows it is n’t green cheese, any- 
16 


COMPANY AT THE CLAUSES’ 


way, and somehow he seems to resent 
the idea very strongly. Pooh! I 
should n’t care what the professors say; 
but as I said, he’s rather crotchety. He 
needs a wife, that man does.” 

“ Why don’t you marry him, Mother 
Goose ? ” asked Santa. 

At this Mrs. Claus laughed aloud, 
and Mother Goose looked at her 
sharply again. 

“My stars, child ! ” she said to Santa. 
«What would I do with such an old 
stay-at-home as he is ? Besides, I 
don’t like that climate. Just think, 
Santa, the Man in the Moon does n’t 
have any garden at all! ” 

“ No garden ? ” asked Santa. “ No 
flowers, Mother Goose ? ” 


17 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

“ Not one,” answered his grand¬ 
mother. “ It’s too cold. And that’s 
the reason he has his own special 
flowers here on earth. He waits every 
night for the moonflowers to blos¬ 
som, you know, and he watches them 
until they fade again with the sun. 
He loves his moonflowers, even if they 
are far off, and he feels very sad that 
he can’t have them there on the 
moon with him.” 

When Santa heard this, he did feel 
sorry for the Man in the Moon. He 
thought how lonely the Man must be, 
waiting all by himself for his moon¬ 
flowers to open. He decided, right 
then, that he would sit up with the 
Man that night, and keep him company 
18 


COMPANY AT THE CLAUSES’ 

while he watched the moonflowers un¬ 
fold in the evening stillness. 

So after supper, while Mother Claus 
was busy putting the five younger chil¬ 
dren to bed, Santa crept out into the 
garden. He looked up to see — yes, 
there was the Man. Then he sat down 
and stared hard at the moonflower vine, 
where a few white petals were already 
open, looking to Santa like sleepy 
butterflies. 

But he was the sleepy one; for the 
next thing he knew it was morning, 
and he was waking up in his own bed. 

« My eyes played a trick on me,” he 
said to himself. He did wish he had n’t 
been such a sleepyhead. 


19 


IV 

UNWELCOME GUESTS IN PUDDING LANE 

That morning, before the baker had 
come back from his search party, the 
Claus family heard a terrific racket and 
clatter down Pudding Lane. Mother 
Claus put her hand to her ear. 

“ Hark, hark,” said she. “ The dogs 
do bark!” 

“ Then the beggars are coming to 
town,” said Mother Goose. 

“ Mercy on us,” cried Mrs. Claus. 
«What is Pudding Lane coming to ? 
One day we have a rascal in the town, 
and the next it’s beggars.” 

They ran to the window and sure 


20 


UNWELCOME GUESTS 

enough, there they were — the three 
beggars, one in rags, and one in tags, 
and one in a trailing velvet gown that 
looked a hundred years old. They had 
red noses and prickly beards, these beg¬ 
gars, and yet they were jolly-looking, 
too, if you saw the twinkle in their 
eyes. 

“ They ’ll eat us out of house and 
home,” complained Mrs. Claus. “ Such 
appetites men never had in this world. 
Would n’t you think they’d get to work 
and earn their living, like respectable 
folks ? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” said Mother 
Goose. “ They enjoy life, I guess.” 

At this slipshod remark, Mrs. Claus 
gave a loud snort. She really did n’t 


21 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

know what to make of Mother Goose 
sometimes, even if she was her own 
mother. Just then, the first beggar 
stuck his head in at the door, so close 
to Mrs. Claus that when she saw him 
she shrieked aloud. 

“ Happy New Year, Mrs. Claus,” he 
greeted her. 

“It isn’t New Year at all,” she 
snapped. “Well, you’re here again, I 
see.” 

“ Here again,” admitted Rags, “ and 
with my two fascinating companions, 
Tags and Velvet Gown.” 

Rags came in, followed by Tags and 
Velvet Gown. Such disreputable, rag¬ 
gedy beggars you never saw. Santa for 
a moment was afraid of them, and then 


22 



(Page 22 ) 





















UNWELCOME GUESTS 

he looked for the twinkle in their eyes, 
and finding it, felt comfortable again. 

They walked straight into the kitchen 
and sat down at the table, and Mrs. 
Claus, complaining every minute, set 
them out such a breakfast as they had 
not seen in many a day. 

“ The baker has the best cook in 
the kingdom,” they told her, and the 
good woman in spite of herself was 
pleased at the compliment. 

“ By the way,” went on Tags, “ where 
is the baker this morning ? ” 

«Here I am,” said a voice at the 
door, and there he was indeed. But 
he did not look like the fierce pirate 
of the day before. For the long search 
had tired him out; his coat-tails 


23 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

drooped, his boots were muddy, and 
his roaring voice was faint with ex¬ 
haustion. 

“Did you hang him?” asked Mrs. 
Claus. 

“No,” replied the baker, “we didn’t 
hang him.” 

“Why not?” Mrs. Claus wanted to 
know; but before the baker could an¬ 
swer, “ Hang who ? ” questioned Rags. 
(A beggar’s grammar is usually quite 
as shabby as his clothes.) 

“ The Pied Piper,” Mr. Claus an¬ 
swered his question. 

“ Ah yes, a delightful fellow,” said 
Rags. 

“Charming,” pronounced Tags. 
“Enchanting,” put in Velvet Gown. 


24 


UNWELCOME GUESTS 

Mr. Claus frowned at the beggars. 

“He is a rascal, and the King is 
going to hang him if— ” 

“ If what ? ” asked Mrs. Claus. She 
knew something had gone wrong and 
she just could n’t wait to hear. 

“ If anybody can find him,” answered 
Mr. Claus. 

And then the truth came out, al¬ 
though Mr. Claus did hesitate to tell 
it: the truth was that all the men in 
Pudding Lane had hunted for the Pied 
Piper all night long and never a trace 
had they found of him, although they 
had searched east, and west and over 
the cuckoo’s nest, high and low, north 
and south, in fact, in every hole and 
corner of the kingdom. 

25 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

Mr. Claus told the whole story and 
finished it up with a deep sigh. 

“ Great snakes 1 ” he said, “ but I’m 
tired.” 

He frowned at the beggars again, 
and they, for once in their lives, took 
the hint and departed, while Mr. Claus 
washed off the mud and partook of a 
large breakfast, glad to be in the bosom 
of his family once more. 


26 


V 

BAD NEWS 

But there could be no peace in 
Pudding Lane. 

For that very same morning, just as 
everybody was settling down to busi¬ 
ness again, hoping that the Pied Piper 
had gone away forever, down the street 
came the Town Crier ringing his bell 
like mad. At the sound of the bell 
everybody came running out, the 
Spratts, Mother Hubbard, Mrs. Muf- 
fett—oh, just everybody, and they all 
began asking each other what in the 
world was the matter. 


27 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

The Town Crier was calling out the 
news, of course, but the bell made so 
much noise you could n’t hear what 
he said. The old man always did that 
when something exciting happened, and 
it was really very provoking to know 
it was exciting and not to know what 
it was. At last, however, the butcher, 
who was the biggest man in town 
with the biggest voice, bellowed out, 
“ What’s the matter ? ” in such loud 
tones as completely to drown out the 
bell. 

“ Eh ? ” said the Town Crier. « Oh! ” 
and then he called out the piece of 
news: “ London Bridge is falling down, 
falling down, falling down ! ” 

The whole town exclaimed and 


28 


BAD NEWS 


gasped and stared. London bridge was 
falling down ! What a calamity ! 

And then they all began to talk. 
The only people there who had ever 
seen London Bridge were Mother 
Goose and Tom, the piper’s son, but 
that did n’t prevent anybody from talk¬ 
ing about it, of course. Any man has 
the right to stand in Pudding Lane 
and say what a dreadful thing it is for 
London Bridge to be falling down. 
And that’s what every man and every 
woman did, until there was n’t another 
thing left to say. 

But all at once, in the midst of the 
clacking voices and the confusion, the 
candlestick-maker cried out in a queer 
voice, and everybody looked to see 
29 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

what was the matter. The matter was 
that the candlestick-maker had had an 
idea, and it so terrified him that he 
could n’t tell anybody what it was at 
all. But after a moment he was able to 
speak. 

“ If London Bridge is falling down,” 
he shouted, “ then the Pied Piper 
must still be close to Pudding Lane.” 

Of course ! Nobody had thought of 
it at all before, but it must be true, 
for the Pied Piper could n’t get out of 
the kingdom unless he crossed London 
Bridge on one side, or went into 
Hamelin on the other. And of course 
he would n’t dare show his nose in 
Hamelin. He’d know better than to 
do that. 


3 ° 


BAD NEWS 


“ Then the wretched man is still 
here,” cried all the mothers. 

“ He must be still here,” answered 
the fathers. 

The candlestick-maker held out a 
candlestick in front of his nephew, Jack. 

“Jack, be nimble, Jack, be quick,” 
he urged, “ and run tell the King what 
we say — that the Pied Piper is still 
about.” 

Jack jumped over the candlestick as 
he was bidden, and in a flash was gone 
to see King Cole. 

The word came back from the King 
that the search for the Pied Piper must 
begin all over again, at which all the 
men, especially Mr. Claus, looked very 
doleful. 


3i 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

“It’s weary work,” said Mr. Horner. 

“ It is indeed,” they all agreed. But 
a king is a king, particularly when he 
is an angry king; so there was nothing 
to do but start out again to find the 
Pied Piper and hang him. 


32 


VI 

A WALK WITH MOTHER GOOSE 
When Mr. Claus had departed, 
Mother Goose told her daughter she 
wanted to take a walk. 

“ One gets so tired of riding,” she 
added, nodding toward the gander. 
But little Santa thought to himself that 
he would never get tired of riding on 
that wonderful gander. 

«I ’ll take Santa with me,” she told 
Mrs. Claus. “ And we ’ll let the gan¬ 
der lead, Santa, shall we ? ” 

So they started out, Mother Goose 
and Santa Claus behind the gander 
33 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

who solemnly waddled down Pudding 
Lane. And where did that gander 
go ? Straight to the shoe where the 
Old Woman lived! 

“What’s this?” asked Mother Goose. 
“ Why in the world do you suppose 
he wants to stop here ? ” 

“ Perhaps he wants J udy to go walk¬ 
ing with us,” suggested Santa, who was 
very fond of Judy. 

“ Perhaps he does,” assented Mother 
Goose. So she marched straight up to 
the old woman who was making beds 
in the heel of her home, and asked 
her if Judy might go walking. 

“ Of course,” said the Old Woman. 
“ Only do get her back by spanking¬ 
time. I’d never miss her, you know, 
34 


A WALK WITH MOTHER GOOSE 

in the crowd, so I leave it to you, 
Mother Goose, to have her here safe 
and sound.” 

“You may trust me for that,” prom¬ 
ised Mother Goose, and they were off 
— the old lady and the two children 
following the gander who stepped 
gravely along in front. 

At the end of Pudding Lane they 
met Simple Simon, and Mother Goose, 
who was a kindly soul, stopped to chat 
with the fellow a bit. 

“ I’m waiting for the coach,” he 
told her, “ to go to Banbury Cross. 
The last one did n’t go that far.” 

“ Here comes one,” said Mother 
Goose. « This one goes right past Ban¬ 
bury Cross, Simon.” 


35 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

But Simon stood still as the coach 
stopped in front of him. 

“ Hurry and get in, Simon,” urged 
Mother Goose. 

Simon did not budge. The coach- 
driver cracked his whip impatiently. 

“ Simple Simon, get into that coach 
this very minute,” commanded Mother 
Goose. 

“It goes too far — ” began Simon; 
but just then the coach started to drive 
off, and Mother Goose, pushing with 
all her might and main, shoved Simon 
into the seat, where he sprawled help¬ 
lessly for a moment before he could 
get himself together again. The coach 
was moving rapidly away now, and 
Simon stuck his head out of the window. 

36 


A WALK WITH MOTHER GOOSE 


“ But this coach goes too far,” he 
called back to Mother Goose with a 
troubled face. “ I only want to go to 
Banbury Cross.” 

“Is n’t he absurd?” exclaimed Mother 
Goose, exasperated. “ Is n’t he ridicu¬ 
lous ? As if it makes any difference 
how far the coach goes, so long as it 
goes far enough ! ” 

You see, he really was simple. 


37 


VII 

SOMETHING VERY EXCITING HAPPENS 

They had not gone very far when 
the dignified gander, who was inarching 
along with such an elegant air, sud¬ 
denly began to act very unlike him¬ 
self. He stopped still, and flapped his 
wings, and squawked a moment, then 
taking a hop, a skip, and a jump, he 
whirled around in his tracks, after 
which he began all over again, flap¬ 
ping his wings and squawking. 

“ Has the fowl gone mad ? ” cried 
Mother Goose. « Here, here, here ! ” 
she called to the gander, but he only 
whirled the faster, squawked the louder, 
38 


SOMETHING VERY EXCITING 

and flapped the harder. It was very 
alarming. Mother Goose did not know 
what to do at all, and Judy and Santa 
were almost afraid of the crazy bird. 

In a moment, however, the gander 
stopped whirling, and with one last 
noise he took a long jump and started 
to run at high speed. Mother Goose 
and the children hardly knew for an 
instant what was happening ; then they, 
too, started to run, to catch the 
runaway gander. 

What a chase that was! The gan¬ 
der could run almost as fast as he 
could fly, and he went down the road, 
over the brook, into the woods, with 
the children right after him, and Mother 
Goose a little farther behind. The poor 
39 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

old lady could n’t run very well, for 
her skirts got in the way, her specta¬ 
cles flew off her nose at every step, 
and she got out of breath so soon! 
But she kept at it, for she did want 
to catch that gander, and she was 
saying to herself that it would be a 
fine spanking he’d get, once she laid 
her hands on him — the rascal! 

They were now in the woods, and 
at last Santa — who, being a boy, was 
far ahead, of course—was just about 
to catch the tip-end tail-feather of the 
gander, when he was startled by a voice 
in his ear. “ Hello, Santa,” said the 
voice. And there in the thicket whom 
should he see but the villainous Pied 
Piper himself. 


40 


SOMETHING VERY EXCITING 


“ Oh dear ! ” thought Santa to him¬ 
self. “ What shall I do ? ” But the 
Pied Piper at that moment reached 
out and caught the gander, and that 
moment, too, Mother Goose and Judy 
came up, Mother Goose scolding the 
gander with all the breath she had left. 
She did not see the Pied Piper at first, 
for his clothes were brown like the 
branches in the thicket. She did not 
see him at all until he stepped out a 
little bit, where he stood smiling at 
her — a smile that did look exceed- 
ingly pleasant for such a villain as he. 


41 


VIII 


A CONVERSATION WITH THE PIED PIPER 
Mother Goose just stared a moment 
before she addressed him. 

“ W ell, wretched man, we’ve got you 
at last,” she said. 

“ Oh, come,” said the Pied Piper, 
smiling again at the stern face of 
Mother Goose. “ Come, Mother Goose, 
let’s be friends, won’t you ? I’m really 
not a villain at all, you know, but the 
kindest-hearted fellow in the world ! ” 

“ You’ve taken a poor way to show 
it,” retorted the old lady, sharply. 
“Taking children away from their 
home! ” 


42 


A CONVERSATION 

“It was just a joke,” began the 
Pied Piper. 

“ A sorry joke,” pronounced Mother 
Goose. 

“ I did n’t mean to keep the chil¬ 
dren,” went on the Pied Piper. « But 
now that I’ve got them in my Cave 
of Delight, they won’t go home ! I’ve 
tried my best, Mother Goose, but they 
won’t leave me.” 

« Stuff and nonsense,” replied Mother 
Goose, a bit rudely, it must be ad¬ 
mitted. Then her curiosity got the 
better of her and she asked: “Your 
Cave of Delight ? What is that ? And 
where, pray ? ” 

«I have a beautiful cave, dear 
Mother Goose,” answered the Pied 


43 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

Piper, “ where I keep orphans and 
beggars and other lonely people. It’s 
under Honeysuckle Hill.” 

“ Honeysuckle Hill! ” cried out 
Santa — the first word he had spoken. 
“ Why, that’s the hill where we get 
water, where Jack and Jill fell down ! ” 

“ The very one,” answered the Pied 
Piper. “ If they had fallen down the 
other side, they would have tumbled 
right into my Cave.” 

“ ‘ Orphans and beggars and other 
lonely people,’ ” repeated Mother 
Goose. “Humph! Well, I must say 
that does n’t sound very wicked. But ” 
— she was sharp and stern again — 
“it’s the children of Hamelin I’m 
thinking of.” 


44 


A CONVERSATION 


“ They won't go home,” said the Pied 
Piper. “ I wish you’d believe me, 
Mother Goose.” 

“ If wishes were horses, beggars might 
ride,” retorted Mother Goose. 

“ As a matter of fact, wishes are 
horses,” the Pied Piper answered 
strangely. He piped three notes on 
his pipe, and out of the woods came 
three beautiful white horses, and mount¬ 
ed on them the raggedy, dirty, prickly- 
bearded beggars, Rags and Tags and 
Velvet Gown. 

“ Bless my soul,” said Mother Goose 
aghast. “ Beggars on horses! What a 
sight! ” She turned to them. “ I knew 
you were up to some mischief when 
I saw you this morning.” 

45 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

But the beggars made no answer. 
They merely smiled, bowed, waved 
their dirty hats, and cantered off, back 
in the direction from which they had 
come. 

“ Come, Mother Goose,” proposed 
the Pied Piper. “ Come, let me take 
little Santa here and Judy into my 
Cave of Delight for an hour’s visit. 
Callers are not usually allowed, and I 
could n’t permit a grown-up to visit it, 
even you, Mother Goose. But I want 
to prove to you, through the children, 
what a kind-hearted fellow I really am.” 


46 


IX 

MOTHER GOOSE’S ANSWER 
The upshot of it was that Mother 
Goose consented to let Santa and Judy 
go with the Pied Piper to his Cave of 
Delight, though, as she said, she shook 
in her shoes at the thought of it. But 
the Pied Piper did act like such a 
kindly chap, now that they knew him 
better, and the children did beg so 
hard to be taken to the Cave, that 
Mother Goose just could n’t refuse. 
Besides, she was curious to know more 
about the Pied Piper herself. 

It was agreed that Mother Goose 
and the gander should stay outside 
47 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

right at the door of the Cave, and that 
Santa should have around his finger a 
long string, which at the other end 
should be tied around the gander’s leg. 

“ Then,” said the Pied Piper, “ if 
the children become afraid, Santa can 
pull the string, and you and the gan¬ 
der can come rushing to their rescue.” 

«And we’d come a-flying,” prom¬ 
ised Mother Goose grimly. “You may 
be sure of that.” 

They walked a few steps to Honey¬ 
suckle Hill, the Pied Piper piping a 
few notes now and then of that ex¬ 
quisite music of his, Santa and Judy 
skipping and jumping in their excite¬ 
ment, Mother Goose wondering to her¬ 
self if she was a foolish old lady to 
48 


MOTHER GOOSE’S ANSWER 


allow such a caper as this. As for the 
gander, he had quite recovered his for¬ 
mer sober air. The scolding Mother 
Goose had given him would last £he 
silly bird quite a while, for it was really 
very humiliating for a fowl of his stand¬ 
ing to be rebuked in public as he had 
been. 

“ It’s right and natural to live in a 
cave,” the Pied Piper was saying. “Who 
wants to live in a house, anyway ? ” 

“ It’s very nice to live in a shoe,” 
piped up Judy. 

But they were now at Honeysuckle 
Hill. At the foot of the hill Mother 
Goose and the gander took their stand. 

« Have them back soon,” admonished 
Mother Goose. 


49 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

“ In an hour from now,” promised 
the Pied Piper. 

He lifted a spray of honeysuckle 
from the side of the hill, and a small 
opening appeared. He pushed Judy 
and Santa in and followed them rap¬ 
idly. They took one quick breath. 
They were in the Pied Piper’s Cave 1 


S° 


THE PIED PIPER’S CAVE 

But the Cave was not a big black 
pit such as they had heard about, at 
all! As they looked around in their first 
hasty glance, Santa and Judy thought 
they must be in Heaven, or London, 
or some other wonderful place. 

It was so shiny! They had never 
seen such light before. It seemed as if 
all the candles in the world must be 
alight, and Santa and Judy, who were 
used to going to bed with one, blinked 
at the blaze. 

The Pied Piper, noticing their daz¬ 
zled eyes, pointed to the waxen can- 

51 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

dies set in the silver walls of his Cave. 

“We burn them at both ends here,” 
he explained. “ Pudding Lane does n’t 
believe in that, but I find it gives a 
great deal more light.” 

“It’s very beautiful,” said Judy. She 
wished her mother would burn candles 
that way. It got very dark down in 
the toe of the shoe at night, and Judy, 
though she knew it was foolish, got 
almost afraid to go there. 

“ It’s light here all the time,” said 
the Pied Piper. He showed them a 
brilliant sun above. 

«Does the sun never set ? ” asked 
Santa. 

“ Oh, we have two,” replied the Pied 
Piper airily. “ And I’m thinking of 
52 


THE PIED PIPER’S CAVE 

putting in another. Twelve hours is 
pretty long for anybody’s sun to be on 
duty.” 

Two suns, and a third to come! 
Who had ever heard of such a thing ? 

“ But it does rain here,” continued 
the Pied Piper. «I ’ll have a little 
shower for you if you like.” 

“ Oh no,” answered Santa politely. 
“ I don’t especially care for rain.” 

But before they could take another 
breath, Santa and Judy were amazed 
to see a shower of kittens and puppies 
come tumbling to the ground. Such 
cunning little animals as they were! 
There were fat white puppies with 
stubby tails; wobbly brown puppies 
with tiptilted ears; gray, fuzzy kittens, 
S3 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

yellow kittens, tiny, shiny black ones; 
and all of them squealing and mewing 
and squirming and tumbling in the 
most astonishing hodgepodge you can 
imagine. 

“You see, it rains cats and dogs 
here,” said the Pied Piper calmly. 

Just then the tiniest kitten of all 
tumbled right into Judy’s apron, and at 
the same time a jolly little puppy 
sprawled plump down into Santa’s fat 
arms. The Pied Piper smiled at them. 

“ Keep them if you like,” he said. 
“We’ve had a good deal of rain here 
lately, so we’ve quite enough to go 
’round. But now,” he continued, “ we 
must go on. There are lots of things 
to show you. Would you like to see 
54 



You see, it rains cats and dogs here,” said the Pied Piper calmly 


(Page 54) 














THE PIED PIPER’S CAVE 

the castles in the air that the orphans 
and beggars have built ? They are 
really quite lovely and no two rooms 
are alike. You won’t have time to 
go through them all, but they ’re worth 
seeing.” 


55 


THE WONDERFUL CASTLES 

“Oh yes,” replied both the children. 
“We have never seen any castle ex¬ 
cept old King Cole’s, and his isn’t in 
the air.” 

“ But he doubtless has one there,” the 
Pied Piper answered. “ Most people do. 
You ’ll have them yourselves when you 
grow older. Come, we have only to 
cross that bridge and we ’ll be there.” 

But Judy had stopped to spell out 
a sign that hung on the bridge. Now 
Judy was a jolly little girl, all right, 
but she did have trouble with her les- 
56 


THE WONDERFUL CASTLES 


sons, and spelling puzzled her most of 
all. After much hard work, however, 
she made it out. It said : You must 
not cross this bridge before you get 
to it. 

She read it over twice and then 
spoke out: “ But how could you cross 
it before you get to it ? It sounds a 
little — silly, to me.” 

“Well, people do it just the same,” 
the Pied Piper told her. “ It is silly 
for them to, but they do.” 

Judy thought this was very amusing 
and she laughed at the thought of 
people doing such a foolish thing. But 
she never really understood that sign 
until she grew up. 

Santa asked where the children of 


57 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 


Hamelin were, and the orphans and 
beggars and other lonely people. 

“ Oh,” said the Pied Piper, “ I have 
to have a little privacy. So they stay 
up there in their castles in the air, 
most of the time. We’ll see them now. 
First we ’ll go to the beggars’ castle, 
shall we ? ” 

With that the Pied Piper squatted on 
the ground and then took a big leap, 
and the children were astonished to see 
his figure flying high into the air. 

“ Do the same,” he called down to 
them. They did, and felt themselves 
flying, too. Such fun as it was! But 
it was over in a flash, and they were 
high in the air in front of some wind¬ 
ing marble steps leading up to the beg- 
S8 


THE WONDERFUL CASTLES 

gars’ castle, which gleamed in the sun, 
a shining gold heap, pure gold. 

“ It’s a bit gaudy,” apologized the 
Pied Piper. “ But it’s their idea of 
happiness, and I humor them in it. 
There’s nothing really to see but gold 
furniture and servants, but we ’ll have 
a peep, anyway.” 

He took the children into the cas¬ 
tle, the richest-looking place they had 
ever seen, where a manservant in red 
velvet bowed low to them and showed 
them into the parlor. There, lolling 
in luxurious ease over the gold furni¬ 
ture, drinking tea out of gold goblets, 
eating beefsteak from gold plates, were 
the dirty, tattered beggars whose castle 
this was. It was almost funny to see 
59 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

them acting like princes in their rags, 
and it was almost sad. Yet, thought 
Santa, they did look happy, so he de¬ 
cided it must be all right. 

“ They won’t shave or dress up, of 
course,” said the Pied Piper. “ A beg¬ 
gar does n’t seem to be happy if he is 
clean. And they will eat such rich 
food and lie around so much, I must 
admit that they are not as healthy as 
they might be. Still, it’s their castle 
and they may do as they like in it.” 

Next, said the Pied Piper, they’d go 
see the orphans’ castle in the air. In 
another minute they were in front of 
a big white house, with flower gardens 
on all sides, and Santa and Judy saw 
more children than they had ever seen 
60 


THE WONDERFUL CASTLES 

in their lives, playing on the grass, look¬ 
ing out of the windows, running in and 
out of the doors. And always beside 
them were plump, pink-cheeked women 
in blue aprons. 

“ This castle is full of mothers,” ex¬ 
plained the Pied Piper. “ The orphans 
all want mothers; most of them have 
two or three ! It crowds things pretty 
badly, but I don’t mind.” 

Santa and Judy went up on the 
porch and all the orphans came crowd¬ 
ing around them and begged them to 
stay and play games. Santa looked at 
the Pied Piper and he nodded his head. 

“Ten minutes,” he said. “Our time 
is short, you know.” 

With a whoop the orphans swarmed 
61 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

out on the green lawn and in a second 
they had Santa and Judy in their midst, 
playing the most riotous games you 
could think of. What fun it was! And 
how they laughed! Santa and Judy 
could now see why the children of 
Hamelin were not anxious to leave. 

The ten minutes were up in just a 
minute, as Judy said, but the orphans 
did n’t want them to go at all, and 
crowded around them, begging them 
to stay. 

“ Why not stay forever ?” suggested 
one. 

“ Oh,” said Santa, a bit scared at the 
thought, “ we ’d like to, but we’re going 
back to Mother Goose and Pudding 
Lane. We really must.” 

62 


THE WONDERFUL CASTLES 

“ But the children of Hamelin are 
never going back,” persisted the or¬ 
phans. 

“ No,” said the children of Hamelin, 
suddenly appearing at the doorway of 
the castle, “ we ’re never going back. 
It’s so much fun here, Santa Claus! 
Much more fun than Hamelin was. 
We never have to wash our ears here, 
and we may eat all the candy we like, 
and we don’t even have to go to bed 
if we don’t want to ! Please, please 
stay ! ” 

“ Come,” whispered the Pied Piper. 
“ Don’t argue with them. I’ve tried 
my best to get them to go home, but 
they won’t stir.” 


63 


THE PIED PIPER’S FARM 

“Well,” said the Pied Piper next, 
“ it must be about time to eat;” an 
idea that Santa and Judy approved of 
highly. 

The Pied Piper said they would eat 
at the farm, and took them along a 
lovely road between fields of flowers 
— cornflowers and poppies and lilies. 

In another moment they had reached 
the farmhouse. It was a tiny place, 
vine-covered, and its mistress was a 
plump little dairymaid with red cheeks 
and white arms. When they arrived 
64 


THE PIED PIPER’S FARM 

she was serving a couple of beggars with 
plates of pie. 

“ What kind of pie are the beggars 
eating ? ” asked the hungry Santa. It 
looked very tempting to him. 

“ Humble pie,” was the response. 
“ The beggars get rather proud up there 
in the castle, so I have them brought 
down here for a helping of humble pie 
every now and then.” 

“Is humble pie good?” asked Santa. 

“ Not bad. A little sour. But you 
feel so much better after you ’ve eaten 
it. You don’t need any, though, Santa, 
so we ’ll have other things. Bring us 
some milk, Daisy,” he said to the 
dairymaid. 

But the dairymaid, instead of going 

65 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

off for the milk, curtseyed to the 
Piper and then went close to him and 
whispered something in his ear, at 
which he frowned anxiously. 

“ Again ? ” he asked her. 

She nodded, a tiny worried frown 
in her white forehead, too. 

“ Was there not enough to send to the 
orphans’ castle to-day ? ” he inquired. 

She shook her head. 

“ Dear, dear,” said the Pied Piper, 
“ this is distressing.” He looked at the 
children. “It’s the milk,” he said. 
“ It’s running very low now. The supply 
has been poor for quite a while; I 
declare, I don’t know what to do.” 

“ Can’t you get a new cow ? ” asked 
the practical Santa. The Clauses once 
66 


THE PIED PIPER’S FARM 

had trouble with their cow and Father 
Claus had simply bought a new one 
and all was well again. 

“ Oh, we don’t have cows, you 
know,” came the astonishing reply. 
“ Why, bless me ! I have n’t shown you 
the fountain, have I ? ” 


67 


XIII 

THE FOUNTAIN 

With that, he hustled the children 
right out of the little vine-covered 
farmhouse, down the path, and into a 
near-by grove of green young lime-trees, 
where in a tiny open place they saw 
a thin trickle of—well, of what, they 
did n’t know. It looked like milk, 
but it acted like water, and nobody 
had ever heard of anything like that, 
of course. 

The Pied Piper went up to it sadly. 

“Just a thin little trickle,” he said. 
“ It’s the milk of human kindness,” 
68 


THE FOUNTAIN 


he explained, turning back to the 
children. 

“ The milk of human kindness ? ” 
they repeated. They did n’t know in 
the least what he meant. 

“Yes,” he told them. “When the 
people of Pudding Lane and Hamelin 
and Banbury Cross are generous and 
kind and noble, this fountain gushes 
out in a torrent. It’s a most beauti¬ 
ful sight — rushing, gushing milk rising 
in jets and falling again, giving plenty 
for everybody. But lately it has flowed 
so feebly. People are n’t very good any 
more, I guess. My orphans will starve 
if the fountain does n’t begin to flow 
fast again.” 

The poor Pied Piper looked very 
69 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

troubled, and Santa made a promise 
to himself right then : that he’d be, 
oh, so generous and kind when he got 
back to Pudding Lane, so that the 
fountain would flow fast to feed the 
orphans here! 

Just then, the kitten that was asleep 
in Judy’s arms woke up and gave a 
small squeak. At the same instant, the 
puppy that Santa was carrying opened 
his eyes and let out a gruff, feeble 
little bark. 

“ They ’re hungry,” said the Pied 
Piper. He looked at the fountain. 
“Isn’t that too bad? There’s only 
enough milk there for you children. 
The kitten and the puppy will have 
to wait until somebody does something 
70 


THE FOUNTAIN 


kind somewhere, and the fountain 
flows again.” 

Santa looked at Judy and Judy 
looked at Santa. They both looked 
at the fountain, and they looked at the 
kitten and the puppy. The milk 
looked mighty good and they were 
extremely hungry. But the poor little 
kitten and puppy were hungry, too. 
Santa spoke. 

« Let’s —” 

« Let’s do,” agreed Judy before he 
got any further. 

«We ’re going to give them the 
milk,” cried Santa to the Pied Piper, 
and he ran to the fountain to get the 
milk. 

But just as he had drained off the 
7i 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

last drop for the hungry little animals, 
the fountain suddenly began to flow 
again, very fast, the milk rushing out 
in great streams. 

“ Why! ” exclaimed Santa, greatly 
surprised. 

“ Goodness! ” breathed Judy. 

The Pied Piper laughed at their 
wonder. 

“You did a kind act, you see. Now 
drink to your heart’s content.” 

And Santa and Judy had never 
thought of that! 

He peered through the lime trees 
at the sun, when they had finished. 

“ Come,” he commanded them. 
“Hurry! Your hour is up. We must 
run back as quickly as we can.” 

72 


THE FOUNTAIN 


And sure enough, already Santa felt 
a tug at the string on his finger. 
Mother Goose was getting impatient 
and had pulled the string on the gan¬ 
der’s leg. So they ran as quickly as 
they could and were soon at the door 
behind the spray of honeysuckle. 

“ Good-bye,” said the Pied Piper, 
smiling in his pleasant way at them. 

“ Good-bye,” said the children. Judy 
put up her lips to be kissed and Santa 
hugged the Pied Piper. 

“ Speak a good word for me to 
Mother Goose and King Cole,” he 
asked them. 

“ Oh, we will, we will! ” promised 
Santa and Judy. 

They were just going through the 
73 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

opening of the Cave when with one 
accord the kitten and the puppy leaped 
from their arms and ran back to the 
Pied Piper. Santa started back to get 
them. 

“ Go on,” said the Pied Piper. 
“They never will leave me. Hurry!” 

The next minute they were out on 
the hill again with Mother Goose and 
the gander, and Mother Goose was 
asking them a thousand questions. 


74 


XIV 

HOME AGAIN 

You should have seen Mrs. Claus 
when Mother Goose and Santa reached 
home once more and told her where 
Santa had been ! She had her hands 
in some of the baker’s dough when 
they came in, but when she heard the 
story she threw up those hands, floury 
and doughy as they were, and opened 
her mouth wide. She stood that way 
for almost a minute before she was 
able to speak. 

“ Well, I never ! ” she said. “ And 
here I’ve been making buns as peace¬ 
ful as anything.” 


75 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

It was then her turn to shower ques¬ 
tions at Santa about the Pied Piper and 
his Cave of Delight, and Santa answered 
them as faithfully as he could. But of 
course he could n’t tell everything at 
once. 

“ It all sounds too queer,” said his 
mother. “You say the place was full 
of orphans and beggars ? ” 

“Yes’m,” repeated Santa. “Full 
of ’em.” 

“Well, I never,” said his mother 
again. And she kept on saying that 
to herself the rest of the day. 

The baker came in from the shop 
after a while, and he had to be told 
the whole tale. 

“Great snakes! ” said the baker. 

76 


HOME AGAIN 


It was decided then and there that 
Santa should go to see the King the 
next morning, to tell him the real truth 
about the Pied Piper. 

“ For of course,” said Mother Goose, 
“ when King Cole hears what a good- 
hearted man the Pied Piper is, he ’ll 
change his mind about hanging him.” 

What an exciting life Santa was hav¬ 
ing ! First he had visited the Pied 
Piper, whom nobody else on Pudding 
Lane had ever visited before, and now 
he was going to see old King Cole, all 
by himself! 

Mrs. Claus sat up half the night to 
sew new white-cotton trimming on his 
old red suit. She did wish Santa had 
a new suit in which to call on the 
77 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

King, but the Clauses could n’t buy 
new suits every whipstitch, as she put it. 

Santa looked very well, however, 
when he was ready to start bright and 
early the next morning. His hair was 
plastered down close to his head; his 
shoes shone brightly at the toes (no¬ 
body noticed that he had forgotten to 
blacken the heels); his suit looked al¬ 
most new with the fresh cotton trim¬ 
ming. But he was a trifle pale. The 
truth of it was that the little boy was 
frightened half to death over the whole 
affair. Old King Cole was known to 
be in a dreadful mood just now. He 
might scold, Santa thought. 

“ Nonsense,” said Mrs. Claus, when 
he confided his fears to her. “He’ll 
78 


HOME AGAIN 

be thankful to you for the news. Now 
go along.” 

So Santa was packed off by himself 
to the palace, and he soon got to the 
big iron gateway, where two guards 
were fast asleep. 

“ Hey ! ” shouted Santa. 

“ Ho ! ” cried they, waking up. 

At the palace it was said that the 
King was asleep. You see, the Clauses 
had completely forgotten that kings don’t 
have to arise as early as bakers. 

“ Why,” said the fiddlers three, “ he’s 
only gone to bed.” 

But just at that minute in came the 
King, looking very sleepy and cross, his 
crown on backward and his fur robe 
dragging behind. Santa jumped to his 
79 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

feet and made a low bow, almost tip¬ 
ping himself over on his nose in the 
effort. 

“ Who’s that ? ” cried the King. 
“Turn him over to the Queen. I de¬ 
clare, I really can’t sleep a wink, I’m 
so worried about this Piper fellow.” 

There was Santa’s chance ! He was 
afraid to speak, but he did, anyhow, 
standing up as straight as he could and 
looking the cross old King right in the 
eye. Old King Cole listened unwil¬ 
lingly at first, but as he listened the 
cross look gradually faded from his face 
and he began to look like his merry 
old self again. 

“ And you ’re telling me the truth, 
Santa Claus ? ” he asked. “ Of course 
80 



Santa jumped to his feet and made a low bow 

(Page 80) 






























































HOME AGAIN 


you are. I can see it shining in your 
honest little face. Ha, ha! This is 
great news! Ho, ho, ho ! This is ex¬ 
cellent news! ” 

He laughed so hard, the merry old 
soul, that Santa could not help joining 
in, and then the fiddlers three began 
to laugh too. How jolly it was! 

But in the midst of his laughter, old 
King Cole had an unpleasant thought. 

«The children of Hamelin are still 
there,” he said. “ I ’ll never let the 
Pied Piper go until the children of 
Hamelin come back.” 

« But the children of Hamelin won’t 
come,” pleaded Santa. “It isn’t the 
Piper’s fault. It was only a joke with 
him at first.” 

8j 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

“ But it’s a poor joke,” said the 
King. “ The mothers of Hamelin are 
crying their eyes out right now for 
their children. No, I will not spare 
the Piper unless the children of Hame¬ 
lin come back.” 

That was the King’s last word on 
the subject, and a more disappointed 
family than the Claus family you have 
never heard of, when Santa went home 
with the sad news. 

They all went to bed that night 
grieving for the Pied Piper, whose life 
was still in danger, even though he 
was a kind-hearted gentleman and not 
a rascal at all. 


82 


XV 

HELPING TO FEED THE ORPHANS 

The next day, Mother Goose went 
away on her gander, and Santa ran 
down to see Judy. But Judy wasn’t 
at home. 

“ She’s gone over to see Mother 
Hubbard,” the Old Woman told him. 
“ She took the poor dog a bone, I 
believe.” 

Then Santa remembered. He had 
promised himself to do kind things so 
the fountain of the milk of human 
kindness would flow again. Judy had 
already started, but he had been so 
busy feeling sorry for the Piper that 

83 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

he had completely forgotten the poor 
little orphans. 

What should he do ? He thought 
of everybody on Pudding Lane. He 
might go over and see Jack, who had 
broken his crown a few weeks before, 
and was still in a rocking-chair with 
a bandage over his head. He might 
pay a visit to Humpty Dumpty, too. 
Humpty had had a great fall, one of 
the most serious cases Pudding Lane 
ever had. All the King’s horses and all 
the King’s men had been called in to 
assist, but they could n’t put him together 
again, and it was feared the poor boy 
would be a permanent invalid. 

He might take some meat to the 
Spratt’s cat — a wretched animal, the 
84 


HELPING TO FEED THE ORPHANS 


skinniest cat in Pudding Lane. For 
when a couple lick the platter clean 
as the Spratts did, it is naturally pretty 
poor pickings for the cat. Everybody 
on Pudding Lane said it would be 
better to be Mother Hubbard’s dog 
than Jack Spratt’s cat, because Mother 
Hubbard at least tried to feed her 
poor dog, but the Spratts never gave 
their cat a thought. 

Santa resolved, too, that he would 
sit up with the Man in the Moon, 
though I ’ll just tell you that he never 
really did, for every time his eyes would 
play that same trick on him, and he 
would find himself in bed the next 
thing he knew. 

But he did start out doing the other 
85 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

things, and he really did more kind 
things than you can possibly imagine. 

Mrs. Claus was very proud of him. 

“ He is a nice little boy,” she would 
admit when folks complimented him to 
her. 

Judy, too, was busy doing things for 
people on Pudding Lane, but nobody 
knew, except Santa and Judy them¬ 
selves, just why they were doing them. 
Nobody but those two knew that they 
were helping to feed the orphans and 
kittens and puppies in the Pied Piper’s 
Cave of Delight. 


86 


XVI 

A HULLABALOO DOWN PUDDING LANE 

Still the Pied Piper had not been 
caught, consequently he had not yet 
been hanged. 

“ He’s a slippery chap,” said the 
baker. “ Now and again we have the 
trail, but we don’t catch him, somehow. 
We’ll have to go into that Cave yet,” 
he finished up with a sigh. 

The baker was sick and tired of the 
chase and so was every other man on 
Pudding Lane, and the fact of it was, 
they were n’t looking very hard for the 
Piper any more. 


87 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

It was deep into summer time now. 
Honeysuckle Hill was hot and dry; the 
honeysuckle vines were burned to bits 
by the sun. The roads were inch-deep 
with dust. It was summer’s last fling 
and she was making the most of it. 
Everybody was hot and tired, but still 
the King kept the men out hunting 
for the Piper, and every morning the 
baker staggered in, worn and dusty from 
the hunt, and every night he started out 
with the other men on their hopeless 
quest. As the baker said, it was no way 
to spend the summer. 

One morning, just after Mr. Claus 
had come in, while he was snatching 
a nap and Santa was minding the shop, 
Mrs. Claus heard what she called a hul- 


88 


A HULLABALOO 


labaloo down Pudding Lane, With a 
twin on each hand and the rest of the 
children at her heels she ran to the 
front window. There, ’way down at 
the end of the Lane, she saw a little 
crowd gathering. Simple Simon was 
there, gaping, old Toby Sizer, Mrs. 
Muffett, the piper and Tom, and every 
minute somebody else came running up 
to them. They were pointing toward 
Honeysuckle Hill. Mrs. Claus could 
hear their cries and see their agitated 
gestures, but from her window she could 
see nothing else. 

“ Mercy on us, what can it be now? ” 
she asked herself; and with one look 
at the baker, who was snoring at his 
best, she dashed out of the house, the 
89 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

five children hanging on to her at all 
ends. She flew down Pudding Lane 
toward the little knot of excited, fright¬ 
ened people. 

“ What is it ? ” she screamed. 

They pointed toward Honeysuckle 
Hill, moaning and crying. 

She looked. There, rising over the 
top of the hill, was a great flood. 
Mrs. Claus caught her breath. 

“ What is it ? ” she asked again, 
terrified. 

“ It’s the ocean,” answered somebody. 

“It’s the Flood,” said somebody else. 

“ At first it was just a little thin 
stream,” Mr. Horner told her. 

“ It’s rising, rising, rising, all the 
time,” groaned Mrs. Muffett. 


90 


A HULLABALOO 


It was rising, rising, rising, all the 
time. Mrs. Claus could see that the 
waves had gotten bigger since she had 
been there, just a minute or two. 
Over the top of Honeysuckle Hill 
came the great billows, then breaking, 
down came the flood over the hill, 
right toward Pudding Lane. 

But it did n’t look like the ocean to 
Mrs. Claus. Mrs. Claus had never seen 
the ocean, but she had read about it. 
The poets said it was green and blue, 
and this was white, creamy white, like 
chalk — no, like milk ! 

“ It looks like milk ! ” she cried out. 

“ It’s the end of the world,” said 
Mrs. Grundy, solemnly. “ Are we all 
prepared ? ” 


9i 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

At that, the women shivered and 
wept and the men growled in their 
throats. 

“ It looks like milk,” persisted Mrs. 
Claus. 

But they were all too busy trem¬ 
bling and groaning to listen to her. 

“ I ought to know milk when I see 
it,” she held out. 

But still nobody paid any heed. 

Santa Claus, having heard the racket, 
was now coming down the lane. By 
this time the flood was roaring and 
swishing down Honeysuckle Hill like a 
great wild white beast, angry and pow¬ 
erful, that would soon be at the group 
of people to swallow them in one gulp. 

“ The end is here,” they all said. 

92 


A HULLABALOO 

Somebody started to run. 

“ No need to run,” said Mr. Horner. 
“A flood like this could find any corner, 
scale any height, break down any wall. 
Besides, where would you go ? London 
Bridge is still down, you know.” 

So the people of Pudding Lane stood 
there, awaiting the end of their happy 
little village, quiet now, brave, wonder¬ 
ing how many minutes it would be 
before they were eaten up by the great 
white monster. 


93 


XVII 

A TURN IN EVENTS 

But suddenly, over the peak of the 
topmost wave, there appeared a head, 
a curly little yellow head, and then 
another one, the head of a boy, stubby¬ 
haired and dark. It was a girl and a 
boy, and they were being flung down 
the side of the hill, riding the waves, 
shouting, laughing, enjoying the sport. 
More children followed, and more and 
more, as the round-eyed people of Pud¬ 
ding Lane watched. 

“It’s the children of Hamelin,” 
shrieked Tom, the piper’s son. 

“It is, it is the children of Hamelin ! ” 
The cry was taken up. 

94 


A TURN IN EVENTS 


And it was. They were tumbling 
down into Pudding Lane as fast as the 
great waves could fling them there, 
breathless and laughing with the fun 
they had had. 

And then, before anybody had a 
chance to say another word, another 
head appeared over the top of the 
flood-covered Honeysuckle Hill. It 
was the Pied Piper, and he was wav¬ 
ing to them with his old brown hat. 

“ Good-bye ! ” he called. “We ’re 
sailing away, my beggars and orphans 
and I, to another land. Good-bye, 
good-bye, good-bye! ” 

The orphans were shot into view for 
a moment, then the tousled heads of 
the beggars appeared. 

95 


THE PIED PIPER IN PUDDING LANE 

“Good-bye!” they all called, and 
vanished behind the hill again. But 
the Pied Piper was still there. And 
for a moment the waves stopped roar¬ 
ing as he spoke. 

“Thank you, Santa! Thank you, 
Judy!” he shouted. “You are dear, 
good children. Almost too good, for 
you did so many kind things you made 
the fountain flood over to-day. It has 
washed us out completely! But it 
washed the children of Hamelin out, 
too, so it’s a blessing after all — the 
best deed you ever did. Ask their 
mothers if they don’t think so. And 
now, good-bye forever ! God bless you 
all! Farewell! ” 

With that the Pied Piper disappeared 
96 


A TURN IN EVENTS 


too. And gradually the great white 
flood simmered down; and finally it 
stopped altogether. And the people of 
Pudding Lane went back home, to 
talk about the great event, and think 
about it, and then to talk about it 
some more. 

And this was the way they found 
out what a fine fellow the Pied Piper 
was, after all. They saw for them¬ 
selves, and there’s no better way of 
learning a thing than that. They 
never saw the Pied Piper again, but 
they talked about him the rest of their 
lives — even Mr. Claus, in spite of the 
fact that he had slept through the whole 
affair, and did n’t really know a thing 
about it. 


97 











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